Castlemilk moorits are a dual purpose breed providing good eating and a fine fleece especially suitable for hand spinning.
Meat
Castlemilk Moorit meat is very lean with a fine grain texture.
Pure bred Castlemilks are slow maturing with high quality, superbly flavoured meat. The flavour is more gamey than one is accustomed to in conventional lamb.
In trials to assess the taste and flavour of lambs of different breeds the University of Bristol Division of Food Animal Science came up with the following results.
Twenty entire rams of each breed were slaughtered in November 1998 and appropriate parts of the carcasses were subjected to standard cooking and tasting regimes used in the laboratory. The results from the trials are given below.
Breed | Production System | Score (higher is best) |
Suffolk | Off Grass | 23.3 |
Castlemilk | Off Grass | 21.0 |
Texel Cross | Off Grass | 20.8 |
Welsh Mountain | Off Grass | 18.5 |
Balwen | Off Grass | 16.0 |
Portland | Off Grass | 14.1 |
Suffolk | Concentrates | 12.9 |
Soay | Off Grass | 11.1 |
Wool
The Castlemilk Moorit is renowned for its high quality fleece. The fleece is tight and even throughout with little or no kemp; it is naturally bleached at the tips and darker at the base. Minimum hair is acceptable only on the bib and crest of the rams.
Staple length 2-3 inches.
Bradford count 48-50 demi-lustre.
Average fleece weight is 1kg. (2-3lbs.)